The shooting of a pig in Pine Bluff has led to a proposed ordinance that would remove the animal-control division from the Police Department and make it a separate entity.
City Council members will vote on the ordinance tonight.
Sgt. Brad Vilches, director for the animal-control division, responded last month to several reports of wild hogs in the Jefferson Industrial Park area. Vilches found a pig, which had no identification tag on its ear, in a residential area and shot it, Police Chief Jeff Hubanks said.
Carrie Walthall, a local store owner, said she had seen the pig and was helping a friend try to catch it so she could take it to a nearby farm.
"It was talking to me, and it was listening to me," Walthall said. "It wasn't running, and I could tell it was a pet."
She said she was drying her hair the day she had planned to load the pig into her car and take it to the farm when she received a hysterical voice mail from a friend informing her that an animal-control officer had shot the pig.
The two were told the officer had tranquilized the pig, but when Walthall went to the shelter to pick it up, workers told her it was dead.
"It was a tiny little pet, and he shot it out of the window of his truck," Walthall said.
Hubanks defended Vilches, saying he acted in accordance with the law and departmental policy. Hubanks said the ensuing complaints do not make sense.
"That part of it still baffles me," he said.
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission regulations prohibit people from transporting wild hogs while they are alive because it risks the spread of an animal labeled a public nuisance. They are harmful to Arkansas habitats because they root, eat ground-nesting birds and compete for food resources with other wild animals, according to the commission's website.
The Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission defines a wild hog as one that roams free, is released on a private game reserve or hunting area, or is not clearly identified as domesticated.
Walthall said the issue is not one of legality but of humaneness.
"It's just a pig, but it's kind of like 'Who does that?'" she said.
The proposed ordinance gives the mayor the power to select the new department's director and states that existing division employees will staff the new department while police officers assigned to animal control will work exclusively for the Police Department.
There are two police officers who work at the animal-control division, one of whom is Vilches.
Vilches was put on paid leave in September 2013 after he shot and killed 107-year-old Monroe Isadore, ending a three-hour standoff at Isadore's house. The department investigated the shooting and cleared Vilches to return to work.
Hubanks selected Vilches as animal-control director and said he has done a "fine job."
If adopted, the ordinance would take effect immediately because "There is an immediate need for an independent department to undertake these responsibilities," the proposed ordinance reads.
Animal control was its own department until June 2013 when a city ordinance placed it under the direction of the police chief, Alderman Thelma Walker said.
Walker sponsored the proposed ordinance along with Alderman Steven Mays.
Walker said she thinks the ordinance will be good for the well-being of residents.
"Everything we do is for the betterment of the city," she said.
Hubanks said he has no preference whether the ordinance is adopted, but that if it is, his job would be easier and there would be less strain on his department's budget.
This ordinance is a culmination of numerous complaints about the animal-control division relating to treatment of animals, Walthall said.
"It's kind of like this was just the gasoline," she said. "There was already a fire, and this just made everyone go wild."
Metro on 06/20/2016